The University of Aveiro is a public university, in addition to providing polytechnic education, located in the Portuguese city of Aveiro. Founded in 1973, it has a student population of approximately 12,500, distributed among 58 graduate, 40 Masters of Science and 25 PhD programs, distributed by departments and autonomous sections, with specialized faculties. It is a Research & Development university, with research departments developing programmes in fundamental and applied mathematics, physics, chemistry, telecommunications, robotics, bioinformatics, sea sciences, materials, design, business administration and industrial engineering.
The main campus and nearby Administration and Accounting Institute, are located in the city centre of Aveiro. There are external/regional campuses in Águeda (Higher Education Technological and Management School of Águeda) and Oliveira de Azeméis (Higher Education School of North Aveiro). It serves as a pole for the inter-university Doctoral program, along with the universities of Porto and Minho. Its integrated Masters in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering was the first Portuguese IT oriented European Accredited Engineering Masters (EUR-ACE) by the European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education.
Culture
The University hosts 3810-UA, a weekly national public television program.
In mid-spring, a one-week break from formal studies is allowed, wherein anyone may participate in academic activities, concerts or Enterro do Ano, a local academic parade.
The University is a regular participant or organizer of robotics inter-university or inter-school competitions, i.e.: Micro-Rato (hardware robotics) and Cyber-Rato (behavioral software). In 2008, one of its teams won the Robocup world competition, in China.
The University occasionally organizes mathematics competitions, mostly aimed at pre-university level students.
University Campus Santiago
The university architecture is modern, with more than 25 buildings.
As an organization, the university is composed of departments (one of them built by Eduardo Souto de Moura), autonomous sections, research units, administrative and service facilities, a library (built by Álvaro Siza), a mediateque, a field track, a multisports building with gym, a residential complex, green spaces, ecological spots and parking lots. The rectory (built by Gonçalo Byrne) is located in a white building near the campus centre.
The campus also has an entire Administration and Accounting Institute, which has its own service facilities and parking lots.